Two Maxims

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where to find information on it

Intelligence is not the ability to store information but the ability to find it

My Interests – as a Geographer

For the most part my intellectual interests are descriptive, attempting to document how the U.S. landscapes has evolved by focusing on the institutional forces that provide the framework for virtually all human behaviors

• How societies organize • space – basic divisions and evolution• behavior – basic principles and evolution

• How entities – individuals, groups of individuals, governments – with the right to use land, landowners, exercise those rights to produce goods and provide services and thus create landscapes – the visible effects of human behavior

Pedagogy - PowerPoint presentations

My lecture notes, which you may not fully understand without my narrative

Practical way of organizing my thoughts

Convenient method of displaying the information I think is important – taken from a variety of sources

A bibliography for the class

You will notice that I concentrate on certain aspects of public policy

What I talk about represents what topics I find interesting, topics not covered or not covered “appropriately” in other geography courses

The nature of landscape

(A)ny landscape is an artifact - an object made by man. Its condition, rightly seen, reveals a society's culture as directly as does a novel or a newspaper or a Fourth of July oration because today's environment, the "natural part included, is synthetic

(Roderick Nash The American Environment: Readings in the History of Conservation, 1968 ix)

Our human landscape is our unwitting autobiography, reflecting our tastes, or aspirations, and even our fears, in tangible, visible form.... All our cultural warts and blemishes are there, and our glories too; but above all, our ordinary day-to-day qualities are exhibited for anybody who wants to find them and knows how to look for them

(Peirce Lewis "Axioms for reading the landscape, some Guides to the American Scene" in Donald

Meinig (ed) Interpretations of Ordinary Landscapes (New York, Oxford University Press, 1979 23)

The nature of landscape

(A)ny landscape is an artifact - an object made by man. Its condition, rightly seen, reveals a society's culture as directly as does a novel or a newspaper or a Fourth of July oration because today's environment, the "natural part included, is synthetic

(Roderick Nash The American Environment: Readings in the History of Conservation, 1968 ix)

Our human landscape is our unwitting autobiography, reflecting our tastes, or aspirations, and even our fears, in tangible, visible form.... All our cultural warts and blemishes are there, and our glories too; but above all, our ordinary day-to-day qualities are exhibited for anybody who wants to find them and knows how to look for them

(Peirce Lewis "Axioms for reading the landscape, some Guides to the American Scene" in Donald

Meinig (ed) Interpretations of Ordinary Landscapes (New York, Oxford University Press, 1979 23)

Landscapes are political statements representing the outcome of rational decisions of individuals, corporations, and governments

Landscapes are political statements representing the outcome of rational decisions of individuals, corporations, and governments

To truly appreciate landscapes and places – particular landscapes in particular locations – we must understand;

How governments reach consensus about their role and responsibilities and so

organize behavior and space and • Enact statutes – the legislative process• Promulgate rules – the administrative (regulatory) process• Issue judicial opinion – the judicial process (litigation)

Landscapes are political statements representing the outcome of rational decisions of individuals, corporations, and governments

To truly appreciate landscapes and places – particular landscapes in particular locations – we must understand;

How governments reach consensus about their role and responsibilities and so

organize behavior and space and • Enact statutes – the legislative process• Promulgate rules – the administrative (regulatory) process• Issue judicial opinion – the judicial process (litigation)

How individuals, organizations, and governments• Help formulate the consensus and statutes, rules, and judicial opinions • React to the statutes, rules, and judicial opinions

A Heuristic Device

How the various branches of the federal government reach consensus

How such consensus gets articulated into public policy

How individuals, corporations, and other governments contribute to policy

How individuals, corporations and other governments react to policy

How can we explain the behavior of dairy farmers and milk producers? A simple suggestion

Federal Government

• Statutory Law regarding milk production, marketing, and consumption • Administrative Law regarding milk production, marketing, and consumption • Case Law regarding milk production, marketing, and consumption

Milk Producers – dairy farmers, dairy companies

Milk, Butter, Cheese Consumers

Deconstruct Landscape

The visible evidence of human activities on the “land surface” – most usually associated with a particular sort of behavior – “land use”

Carried out under the impetus of law/public policy

• Activities – farming • Artifacts – structures, installations, facilities • Collection of artifacts – farms, dairy farms, cities, military bases • Goods produced – automobiles, drugs, cosmetics, weapons of mass

destruction, paperclips• Services provided – banking, mass transit, education, transportation, public

safety

Landscape

A Paradigm for LandscapeActivityGoodsServiceArtifacts

Dairy Farms

Activity - dairy farmingCows, milk (hay, corn)Barns, fences, silos, corn cribs …

Deconstruct Public Policy – Law – a social construct for effecting behavior

• Defines goals – establishes a reason for specific types of behavior• Defines, promotes, and rewards certain types of behavior • Defines, prohibits, and penalizes – implicitly or explicitly – other types of behavior

Provides

• A context in which individuals, corporations, and governments decide to behave and subsequently act

• Cues for subsequent rational behavior – provide opportunities and impose constraints

LawPublic Policy Landscape

A Paradigm for LandscapeActivityGoodsServiceArtifacts

Federal LegislationFederal Regulation

Federal Judicial Opinions

Primary Sources for the Geography of the United States

Statutes at Large (GPO)Statutes at Large (Hein Online

United States Code (GPO) United States Code (Legal Information Institute)

Primary Sources for the Geography of the United States

Federal Register (GPO) Code of Federal Regulations (GPO)Code of Federal Regulations (Legal Information Institute)

Primary Sources for the Geography of the United States

Supreme Court opinions

How we explain the behavior of dairy farmers?

Federal Statutory Law regarding milk production, marketing, and consumption • Dairy Market Enhancement Act of 2000 – one such statute, act

Administrative Law regarding milk • Regulations of the US Department of Agriculture – regulations, rules

Case Law regarding milk • Hillside Dairy Inc. et al v William J Lyons Jr., Secretary California Department of Fo

od and Agriculture et al 123 S. Ct. 2142 (June 2003) – one such court case

The actions of large milk companies – Land O’Lakes – and the federal law influencing the way in which they behave

Congress

Agency

LAW

Legislation

Regulation

Legislative Mandate

Deconstructing Public Policy – Law

Congress

Agency

Courts

LAW

Legislation

Regulation

Legislative Mandate

Deconstructing Public Policy – Law

Congress

Agency

Courts

LAW

Legislation

Regulation

Legislative Mandate

Deconstructing Public Policy – Law

Congress

Agency

Courts

LAW

Legislation

Regulation

Legislative Mandate

Deconstructing Public Policy – Law

LawPublic Policy Landscape

Evaluation

A Paradigm for LandscapeActivityGoodsServiceArtifacts

Federal LegislationFederal Regulation

Federal Judicial Opinions

Economic indicesContingent value

Tobacco

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act 2009

FDA

FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco

Corp. 2000

Smoking

LobbyingLobbying

A Paradigm for Smoking

Organization of Space

Organization of Behavior

LawPublic Policy Landscape

Evaluation

A Paradigm for LandscapeActivityGoodsServiceArtifacts

Federal LegislationFederal Regulation

Federal Judicial Opinions

Economic indicesContingent value

The United States landscapes reflect

• Multiple iterations of public policy – virtually each Congress – involving the continuous often acrimonious debate about the role and responsibilities of governments

• Myriad decisions made by individuals, organizations and governments operating within the framework of opportunities and constraints • What goods to produce & how to produce them• What services to provide & how to provide them

• Relationships between individuals, organizations, and governments

All landscapes reflect a past and a present All landscapes provide a basis for a future

They embody incredible details – about the past, present and future – about our fears and aspirations

It’s hard to remember the objective was to drain the swamp

At any one point in time landscapes are ambiguous and contradictory

They only make sense in the appropriate temporal and spatial context

Muddling Through – Disjointed Incrementalism

We change our mind about the role & responsibilities of government

Governments accept responsibilities that the private sector is not willing or not able to accept

Private sector provides services that governments cannot fully provide – private prisons, security overseas, school bake sales

VioxxDrug RecallsWetland Protection

BicyclingSmoking

DDT

Public Policy Outcomes

Artifacts – structures, installations, facilities

Goods and Services

The Male Love Affair with Petroleum!

Military Industrial Complex

Spatial distributions

Spatial distributions

Temporal distributions

Take-home Points

Landscapes are political statements

Landscapes embody the past and the present and are the basis for the future

Landscapes are the product of “shared” endeavors between governments and the “private” sector (I’d call it a product of socialism but ….)

There may be no such thing as private enterprise in the United States

My Propositions

Need a way of thinking about landscapes because • There are a bewildering array of landscapes• There are an astounding variety of goods and services• They all contain elements of the past, present, and future

Organization of Space

Organization of Behavior

LawPublic Policy Landscape

Evaluation

A Paradigm for LandscapeActivityGoodsServiceArtifacts

Federal LegislationFederal Regulation

Federal Judicial Opinions

Economic indicesContingent value

Organization of Space

The Organization of SpaceThe Nature of Places – Jurisdictional Units, Governments

Organized spatially

• Horizontally• Vertically

Organized temporally

• Boundary changes

Historically

• Increasing number • Decreasing size

United States

Minnesota

Metropolitan Council

Ramsey County

St. Paul

White Bear Township

Organization of Space – Jurisdictions

What is the size of the United States?

What is the size of the United States?

Where would you look for information?

What is the size of the United States?

Where would you look for information?

“If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien, the rules for filing income, estate and gift tax returns and for paying estimated tax are generally the same whether you are living in the U.S. or abroad”

Subdivision Plat

Township

Section

How do you choose a topic?

Your career goalsYour intellectual interestsYour other interests

USA.gov